Contents

Proposal

Remains of bridges should be mapped through an appropriate tag. They cannot be tagged through bridge=yes as they lack the driveway which is usually symbolized on the map. This proposal is not intended for places where a bridge has been completely destructed. It describes the fundament of a bridge how it is recognized by a visitor.
For clearity it might be better to avoid drawing railway=abandoned if it is used in combination with bridge=abandoned (see http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4372860414_a57a23c909_o.png). Or only draw a dotted line (as is the default for railway=abandoned in mapnik).

Rationale

The need for this proposal is a consequence of the use of railway=abandoned. Remains of old bridges are still significant for the landscape. However, on maps for cars this information is unnecessary.

Tagging Discussion

I would like to tag the complete railway line through railway=abandoned even if it had to give way to farmland. This agrees with the definition:

The course of a former railway which has been abandoned and the track and infrastucture removed.

In contrast a feature bridge=abandoned basically make sense to me if it describes reality. There are already the following features with this understanding:

In keeping with the use of railway=abandoned, I've been treating the term abandoned as meaning that it's no longer physically there. So bridge=abandoned would be used for a completely removed bridge, while railway=abandoned bridge=yes means that the rails have been removed, but the old bridge still remains. How about bridge=piers for the intermediate case, where the bridge no longer spans the river, but piers remain? This would also apply to never-completed bridges such as the South Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge. --NE2 22:55, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

NE2, how about saying that a bridge=abandoned should only have mid-span nodes where a pier still remains? RussNelson 15:30, 9 August 2010 (BST)

That seems like a bad idea; there may be other reasons for having a mid-span node (such as a bridge with different names in the two towns it connects). You could easily use a tag like bridge=pier on each node. --NE2 16:58, 9 August 2010 (BST)